Divers from Holland are set to plunge into English and Dutch waters to explore and clean wrecks at 20 locations over the next ten days.

Guided by Dutch, Dive the North Sea Clean Foundation (DtNC), Expedition North Sea 2018 begins its ten day expedition on Thursday when divers set sail on the mission to discover and clean wrecks in the Netherlands and England.

According to the Marine Conservation Society, the group of 30 experienced divers aim to remove marine litter – particularly ghost nets, fishing hooks, lead and lures – to ‘liberate animals, collect biological and archaeological data and photograph and film habitats and wildlife.’

In English waters, divers will venture into the Southern North Sea marine protected area, Coquet to St Mary’s and Farnes (designated Marine Conservation Zones) and Berwickshire and North Northumberland, a designated Special Area of Conservation.

Volunteers will ‘image’ wrecks in 3D with photogrammetry scanning, sail to biologically interesting Natura2000 protected areas on the border between the Netherlands and England and discover wrecks – one of which is a sunken oil production platform.

Ben Stiefelhagen, Expedition leader and founder DtNC, said: “With this expedition we want to bring both the beauty, vulnerability and litter of the North Sea to the attention of the general public.”

The expedition is an initiative of the Dive The North Sea Clean Foundation in collaboration with the Dutch North Sea Foundation and MCS.

Lorna fell in love with scuba diving back in 2011 during a trip to Thailand and Australia. Having always dreamt of seeing a sea turtle in the wild, her dream was realised on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef while training to become a certified diver. Since then she’s developed a passion for the natural world, writing about wildlife photography – both the on land and underwater kind – for the past eight years.

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